


Christmas Tradition

by bookwyrmling



Series: Check Please! 12 Days of Christmas 2016 [1]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Check Please! 12 Days of Christmas 2016, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Day 1: Choosing/Decorating a Christmas Tree, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 04:03:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8829754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookwyrmling/pseuds/bookwyrmling
Summary: The best place to find a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve is not at a Christmas Tree lot or farm, but you do have to be willing to work for it...and explain to your Georgia-bred boyfriend why cutting a tree down in the mountains and the snow is not going to get the three of you killed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So in my neck of the woods, local national forests will sell permits so you can go cut down a tree following specific regulations. It ends up helping the ecology and it funds local forestry, which is always good. Don't know if this is done elsewhere, but it was fun to work with all the same.
> 
> Day 1: Choosing/Decorating a Christmas Tree

“Oh, Lord, this cannot be safe!”

“It’s fine, Bits,” Jack huffed for the thousandth time as laughter filtered through the air, “I did this every year growing up.”

“Just...I don’t see why we couldn’t just buy a tree from a lot like any normal person,” Bitty complained and Jack looked up from where he had settled on the ground to see him stomping his feet in the snow and breathing into gloved hands. Kenny stood right next to him, cackling and Jack’s eyes narrowed at the man.

“I mean what if you hurt yourself! You play in two days!” Bitty continued just as Jack had stretched back underneath the tree with the saw.

“I know how to cut down a tree, Bits. Promise. You can ask Kenny; he’s done Christmas with the family before.”

“He’s right, Eric,” Kent said as he brought his laughter under control. Jack doubled down on his focus and put extra effort into each drag of the saw through the wood as Kent continued, “Games kept me from going home back in the Q, so I spent a few of ‘em with the Zimmermanns. Going out to get a Christmas tree to decorate on Christmas Eve was kinda a tradition of theirs even back then. Jack knows what he’s doing.”

“One of you want to hold this away from me?” Jack called out as he felt the saw snag for the fifth time. Snow crunched under boots and he snorted through the sudden shower that fell as the tree shook and pulled away.

“But, like, why not just buy one from a lot?” Bitty asked, his voice now closer even though Jack knew Kent was the asshole who’d shaken the tree.

“When my dad played, he didn’t have much time for Christmas stuff until break, just like me and Kent,” Jack explained as he took the saw to the tree once more, speaking in between each run of the saw through the wood, “In Pittsburgh, at least, the tree lot picks could get pretty slim by then and tree farms are often closed for the actual holiday if they haven’t gotten rid of everything. Getting a tag and coming out to the forest to cut a tree meant there would always be a tree they could find. I think they liked how it ended up being something they could do just as a family. No one around here to ask for autographs, after all. Kenny, let her down gently.”

Jack backed out from under the tree a bit, helping to guide the pine’s descent from the trunk’s base as Kenny controlled the fall. Only once the tree was laying on the ground did Jack stand up, brushing snow off his pants and coat and ripping off his gloves to tear off his hat. He glared knowingly at Kenny as he shook the toque out before shoving it back over his ears and shoving his hands back into his gloves. Kenny smirked and Jack rolled his eyes.

Bitty stared down at the tree with wide eyes. “That was fast.”

“It would’ve been faster if I’d had help from the start,” Jack jibes before handing the saw to Kenny and adding, “It’s honestly the hunt that takes the most time. You have the tag, Bitty?”

“Right here,” Bitty said as he pulled the bright yellow tag out and handed it over so Jack could wrap it around the trunk. “Won’t it break if we drag it to the car, though?”

“Not with this snow,” Jack promised as they began the trek back to the truck.

“Let’s hurry back, then. I’ve got hot chocolate and snacks in the cab and my fingers are about to break off.”

Kenny came up alongside Bitty then and pulled him against him, slipping his hands out from under his arms and massaging them through their gloves. “I think you’ll just survive,” he promised with a teasing smirk.

“Besides, now we get to decorate the tree together. That was what you were worried about, right?”

Bitty leaned back into Kenny’s chest and frowned, “You’re all the way out in Vegas and Jack’s all the way out in Providence. It just feels like one of you’s getting left out otherwise. I might get to split my time between you two, but you guys don’t get that and we don’t get much time together just the three of us once pre-season starts. At least for Christmas, I wanted…”

Kent leaned his face down into Bitty’s neck and pressed his frozen nose into the scarf there. “Thank you,” he whispers and presses a kiss against Bitty’s ice cold cheek, making it extra wet before running down the last hill to where Jack was waiting by the truck with the tree tossed inside the bed.

“How was I faster when I carried the tree?” Jack asked as Bitty slid down the last few feet only to have Kent gallop into him and press him up against the cab with a heavy kiss. He sank into it instantly, wrapping his arms around Kent and pulling their bodies flush against each other, opening up to Kent’s attentions until he couldn’t help but laugh at the zipping sound and feel of their jackets rubbing against each other.

He pulled away, but only enough to look to his side where the crunch of Bitty’s boots in the snow had just stopped only to see a warm smile on his face and in his eyes. It was a short holiday, with Kent flying back to Vegas tomorrow and Jack playing a game the day after, but it definitely helped and Jack could easily see this becoming their own family tradition.

“Let’s get the tree home and decorated,” he suggested when Kent released him the moment Bitty turned the engine on and, Jack knew, blasted the heater. Kent tore open the passenger door and hopped in with grumbles from Bitty about knocking the snow off his boots and Jack laughed at them.

“Maybe we’ll get you two defrosted, first.”


End file.
